Atdtda36: Bystanders who had their backs turned revealed their faces, 1035-1039 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

On 1034, meeting Chick for the first time in thirty years, 'Dick' suggests
('Thought you'd be taller', 1034) his son hasn't really grown up as
expected: this is a projection, what he would have expected to happen, or to
have said, had anyone asked. The current section's opening description of
'the lab of every boy's dreams' (1035) then concludes with 'tons of other
stuff Chick had never recalled seeing before' (1036) - again the tense
offers a projection, what he would have said, had anyone asked, at any time
in the past. Such projection will be revisited later with the images that
Merle 'set[s] free' (1037).

Moreover, Chick's recognition of lab equipment is perhaps ironic, given his
non-recognition of Roswell Bounce and Merle Rideout (unless they be included
in the 'tons of other stuff'). The list (beginning: 'The shelves and
benchtops were crowded with ...' etc, 1035) offers a history of sorts for
Chick to read (eg 'Why, the place even smelled scientific ...' etc), even as
he seems unable to read his own history: it is striking that he feels an
immediate rapport with the objects he associates with scientific inquiry,
while remaining oblivious to previous meetings with Roswell and Merle,
reintroduced above the section break as 'two elderly eccentrics' (cf in this
section, 'the pair of mad inventors', 1037) and recognised by the reader if
not by Chick himself. He has no recollection of having met Merle in Ch4
('... the Chums were approached by a couple whom they were not slow to
recognise ...' etc, 26), or Roswell at the end of Ch31 ('... marvelled
Chick, who as Scientific Officer was especially intrigued', 426). Neither is
there any indication that he recognises Lew's name: see Ch5 and Lew's
introduction as 'a sociable enough young man' who has, however, 'not, until
now, so much as heard of the Chums of Chance' (36). This point is pertinent
if we accept that the instance of a name on this or that page contains
within it an implied reference to all other instances of that name, just as,
for Chick here, the 'long-familiar blend' of smells and objects in 'the lab
of every boy's dreams' are all recognisable, even though this is, in all
likelihood, the first time he has seen these particular 'volt-ammeters,
rheostats ...' etc (1035). And then, on the 'long-familiar blend' of smells,
cf the section's ending, the '[s]mells of cooking' (bottom of 1038) that
translate into the menu Chick goes on to describe (top of 1039).